Annually, it is estimated that 100 million US gallons of oil spill. There are various reasons why oil spills, but usually it comes down to majorly three things: accidents, unavoidable events such as natural disasters, and intentional spills from terrorists. When oil spills, it floats and it spreads in the water. When oil spreads, though sometimes hugely exaggerated by environmentalists, it can have a significant impact on marine larvae, birds and mammals. However, it has less impact on fish since oil very rarely sinks. Globally, there are about 7 ways the world reacts to such events Containment and recovery : Surrounds the oil and recover the oil with skimmers. Skimmers separate the oil from water. Sorbents: They remove oil from water by using absorbent sponges made from substances that can be also found in diapers. Dispersants: They are chemicals that break oil up in to little parts. They are waiting for naturally forming bacteria that eats up small parts of oil. Burning: This way is very efficient but it creates black smoke. It is literally burning the thin sheet of oil on top of the water. Bioremediation: This enhances the biodegradation of oil by letting natural oil-eating bacterias to form. Shoreline cleanup: This is rinsing oil back into water. Do nothing: Most of the times the actions in the list are very inefficient. Therefore, they leave the oil spill in the ocean.
Nigeria
Nigeria is known as the ‘World oil pollution capital’ as the visitors of the Nigerial village of Kpor get to see a very interesting sight deep in the Niger delta; Visitors are given a warm welcome by silver frogs blinking from the gleaming puddles. On 12 May 2009, Shell’s Bomo manifold blew up, which leaked massive amounts of crude oil in to the Niger Delta. Another major leak in the area is from a derelict oil tap, which had been spilling for many . It is estimated by the Nigerian government that there were more than 7000 spills between 1970 and 2000. In essence, the Nigerial government is known for not being able to control the spills according to the law. According to the graph of annual oil leak in Nigeria, a huge increase in the number is not spotted but a continuous huge numbers of oil spills each year can be seen. The oil spill of Nigeria has destroyed the large areas of the mangrove ecosystem; The oil spill has already destroyed farmlands, drinkable water, and has affected the fish population in the Nigerian Delta. Serious toxic effects have resulted to mammals int he area due to plankton’s that have been serious effects. Not only that, the citizens have tried to seize control of this oil source in Nigeria. After the fall of oil price in Nigeria, people have tried to spil oils inorder to resell it in the market for money.
Oil Spill Incidents in Nigeria from 1976 to 1998
I think a possible solution is to first get the word out to people all over the world. I am very sure that quite a lot of number of people have already heard of this situation, but getting the word spread all over the world is the most important thing. Through a fund raising program workers should be sent to the Nigerial delta. The situation must be so bad that any type of work would be inefficient but at this point I think any small help to the Nigerian delta is very meaningful. Also, the international organizations and companies which deals with oil have to pay more attention to this problem. If these events are caused by the company's lack of care, they should pay closer attention to the ships. If the civilians are purposely damaging these ships to get oil to gain money, than the government should take action. They have the responsibility to give them jobs and money, to not let these violent acts happen.
It involves the loss climatic and human activities. Activities such as over-cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation, and poor irrigation practices cause the land to die. When rainfall is significantly under normal standards for a long period of time, it causes the land to dry-out.
Global Issue:
This issue of desertification is happening all around the world. Not only in Africa but also China, New Mexico, Chile, Morocco, South Africa, Ghana, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Brazil and Iran. These countries are loosing their land to grow crops, to live, or to work.As one can see in the right, the grain area per person is decreasing. This means that the arable land to support the population is decreasing.
China:
China is one of the main victim of this
desertification. They have lost 54 billion yuan (US$6.5 billion) every year because of this issue. When looking at the territory of China, 17.6% of their land turned into a desert in the past 7 years. It might look like a modicum amount, but looking at the rate of desertification, the arable land is decreasing while the population is increasing.
The Sahel
Sahel is a transitional region right under the Sahara desert. However, increasing population in this region has caused this area to harvest more and more food. Thus, the grains soaking up all the nutrients from the ground has killed the land. They have not yet discovered how only growing one crop for a long period of time will not create nutrient flow, which will kill the land. Not only that, the windy nature of Sahel, along with blazing hot sun, causes drought. This leads to easy erosion, causing it to become sandy. Today, as shown in the graph below, the rainfall has decreased significantly. This chained sequence of desertification in Africa is causing Socio-economic problems, which causes famine, migration, poverty, and conflict.
How can we solve this?
We can solve this by first starting to use “three-field system”. This mechanism of rotating crops helps to replenish nutrients into the floor. Not only that, we can use the method of aforestation, which is planting plants to reduce water loss. It is a great strategy to also not put the animals in the same areas as the place of aforestation. This is because they live stocks can eat all the grass there is. There are projects going on around the world to stop desertification, or to make it into good use.
Egypt is constantly environmentally challenged by water. So, since ancient time, Egyptians made several attempts to control the floodwaters of Nile River. They built canals and small dams. Regardless of their attempts, Egypt faced several flooding and droughts. In order to resolve this natural catastrophe issue, in 1902, Egyptians constructed Aswan Dam on the Nile. However, it quickly became old and outdated. As a result, they built another dam called Aswan High Dam where they cut a huge channel through the land beside Nile River (as you can see from the image). They used rocks from the channel as base and completed the construction in 1970. Due to this creation, Lake Nasser was artificially created behind the dam. This construction of dam provided local farmers a regular supply of water. Since it holds the Nile floodwaters, it releases those water so that farmers can receive water through effective irrigation. Due to the regular supply of water, the farmers can now have two or three harvests per year rather than one. Irrigation canals even allows some farms to produce continuously with artificial fertilizers. This dam increased the farmable land in Egypt by 50%. As you can see from the graph representing the irrigation in Africa, Egypt, due to the construction of Aswan High Dam, have the largest irrigation system. And lasty, of course, the dam helped the people to avoid floods and droughts.
Although the dam gives several benefits as listed above, it caused several global issues as well. Due to the construction of dam, relocation of numerous people happened and those people style of life changed forever. In particular, the temples at Abu Simbel had to be relocated due to this construction. Other small ancient treasures of Egypt were gone due to this construction as well. It also decreased the fertility of soil around the river because the river doesn't deposit the rich silt anymore on the land. Due to the lack of rich silt, farmers have to get expensive artificial fertilizers in order to enrich the soil. Also since the dam created year-long irrigation, it led to rise of water table. Due to the rise of water table, salts from depth of earth decreased the fertility of soil. When the dam wasn't built, the salts were flushed out by the floodwaters. Therefore, the farmers have to get expensive field drains in order to get rid of salts that destroys the fertility of soil. Lastly, due to the mosquitos that thrive in the still waters of Lake Nasser and irrigation canals, rates of malaria and other diseases increased. Not only that, due to the fact that Lake Nasser holds the floodwaters, people lose so much amount of fresh water to evaporation. Even though there's several problem, there's also a possible solution to solve this issue. We should build assisting systems, to trap the escaping sediments in the Aswan Dam. Secondly, we can develop our way of irrigation, to help enrich the soil due to amount of salt. By adding nutrients to the soil, it will help the fertility problem right now.
Oil Pollution in Nigerial Delta
Global Perspective on oil spills
Annually, it is estimated that 100 million US gallons of oil spill. There are various reasons why oil spills, but usually it comes down to majorly three things: accidents, unavoidable events such as natural disasters, and intentional spills from terrorists. When oil spills, it floats and it spreads in the water. When oil spreads, though sometimes hugely exaggerated by environmentalists, it can have a significant impact on marine larvae, birds and mammals. However, it has less impact on fish since oil very rarely sinks. Globally, there are about 7 ways the world reacts to such events Containment and recovery : Surrounds the oil and recover the oil with skimmers. Skimmers separate the oil from water. Sorbents: They remove oil from water by using absorbent sponges made from substances that can be also found in diapers. Dispersants: They are chemicals that break oil up in to little parts. They are waiting for naturally forming bacteria that eats up small parts of oil. Burning: This way is very efficient but it creates black smoke. It is literally burning the thin sheet of oil on top of the water. Bioremediation: This enhances the biodegradation of oil by letting natural oil-eating bacterias to form. Shoreline cleanup: This is rinsing oil back into water. Do nothing: Most of the times the actions in the list are very inefficient. Therefore, they leave the oil spill in the ocean.
Nigeria
Nigeria is known as the ‘World oil pollution capital’ as the visitors of the Nigerial village of Kpor get to see a very interesting sight deep in the Niger delta; Visitors are given a warm welcome by silver frogs blinking from the gleaming puddles. On 12 May 2009, Shell’s Bomo manifold blew up, which leaked massive amounts of crude oil in to the Niger Delta. Another major leak in the area is from a derelict oil tap, which had been spilling for many . It is estimated by the Nigerian government that there were more than 7000 spills between 1970 and 2000. In essence, the Nigerial
government is known for not being able to control the spills according to the law. According to the graph of annual oil leak in Nigeria, a huge increase in the number is not spotted but a continuous huge numbers of oil spills each year can be seen. The oil spill of Nigeria has destroyed the large areas of the mangrove ecosystem; The oil spill has already destroyed farmlands, drinkable water, and has affected the fish population in the Nigerian Delta. Serious toxic effects have resulted to mammals int he area due to plankton’s that have been serious effects. Not only that, the citizens have tried to seize control of this oil source in Nigeria. After the fall of oil price in Nigeria, people have tried to spil oils inorder to resell it in the market for money.
I think a possible solution is to first get the word out to people all over the world. I am very sure that quite a lot of number of people have already heard of this situation, but getting the word spread all over the world is the most important thing. Through a fund raising program workers should be sent to the Nigerial delta. The situation must be so bad that any type of work would be inefficient but at this point I think any small help to the Nigerian delta is very meaningful. Also, the international organizations and companies which deals with oil have to pay more attention to this problem. If these events are caused by the company's lack of care, they should pay closer attention to the ships. If the civilians are purposely damaging these ships to get oil to gain money, than the government should take action. They have the responsibility to give them jobs and money, to not let these violent acts happen.
Bibliography
"Mpacts of Oil Spills Along the Nigerian Coast « Niger Delta Today." Niger Delta Today. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://nigerdeltatoday.wordpress.com/2008/10/24/mpacts-of-oil-spills-along-the-nigerian-coast/>.
News, Caroline Duffield BBC. "BBC News - Nigeria: 'World Oil Pollution Capital'" BBC - Homepage. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10313107>.
"Students' Guide To Oil Spills." URHOBO WAADO, Web Site of Urhobo Historical Society. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://www.waado.org/NigerDelta/Essays/Pollution/StudentsGuide.html>.
"Wole Soyinka and Ed Kashi Speak about the Niger Delta « Crossed Crocodiles." Crossed Crocodiles. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/wole-soyinka-and-ed-kashi-speak-about-the-niger-delta/>.
"BBC News | AMERICAS | US Court Backs Anti-Shell Lawsuit." BBC News - Home. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1244434.stm>.
Desertification of the Sahel
What is desertification?
It involves the loss climatic and human activities. Activities such as over-cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation, and poor irrigation practices cause the land to die. When rainfall is significantly under normal standards for a long period of time, it causes the land to dry-out.
Global Issue:
This issue of desertification is happening all around the world. Not only in Africa but also China, New Mexico, Chile, Morocco, South Africa, Ghana, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Brazil and Iran. These countries are loosing their land to grow crops, to live, or to work.As one can see in the right, the grain area per person is decreasing. This means that the arable land to support the population is decreasing.
China:
China is one of the main victim of this
desertification. They have lost 54 billion yuan (US$6.5 billion) every year because of this issue. When looking at the territory of China, 17.6% of their land turned into a desert in the past 7 years. It might look like a modicum amount, but looking at the rate of desertification, the arable land is decreasing while the population is increasing.
The Sahel
Sahel is a transitional region right under the Sahara desert. However, increasing population in this region has caused this area to harvest more and more food. Thus, the grains soaking up all the nutrients from the ground has killed the land. They have not yet discovered how only growing one crop for a long period of time will not create nutrient flow, which will kill the land. Not only that, the windy nature of Sahel, along with blazing hot sun, causes drought. This leads to easy erosion, causing it to become sandy. Today, as shown in the graph below, the rainfall has decreased significantly. This chained sequence of desertification in Africa is causing Socio-economic problems, which causes famine, migration, poverty, and conflict.
How can we solve this?
We can solve this by first starting to use “three-field system”. This mechanism of rotating crops helps to replenish nutrients into the floor. Not only that, we can use the method of aforestation, which is planting plants to reduce water loss. It is a great strategy to also not put the animals in the same areas as the place of aforestation. This is because they live stocks can eat all the grass there is. There are projects going on around the world to stop desertification, or to make it into good use.
-Citations-
"BIO 317 - Lecture Notes 3." People - Eastern Kentucky University. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/317notes3.html>.
"China Faces Challenge of Desertification." People's Daily Online - Home Page. Web. 01 May 2011 <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200109/01/eng20010901_79027.html>.
"China's Green Walls Losing the Battle Against Encroaching Deserts." TreeHugger. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/08/china_losing_the_battle.php>.
"IRIN Africa | NIGER: Tide Turning on Desertification | Niger | Environment." IRIN • Humanitarian News and Analysis from Africa, Asia and the Middle East - Updated Daily. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=61307>.
"Sahel Rainfall Index." Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://jisao.washington.edu/data/sahel/022208/>.
"A Solution for Desertification: Putting the Desert into Good Use | Tomorrow Is Greener." Tomorrow Is Greener. Web. 01 May 2011. <http://www.tomorrowisgreener.com/a-solution-for-desertification-putting-the-desert-into-good-use/>.
The Aswan Dam
Although the dam gives several benefits as listed above, it caused several global issues as well. Due to the construction of dam, relocation of numerous people happened and those people style of life changed forever. In particular, the temples at Abu Simbel had to be relocated due to this construction. Other small ancient treasures of Egypt were gone due to this construction as well. It also decreased the fertility of soil around the river because the river doesn't deposit the rich silt anymore on the land. Due to the lack of rich silt, farmers have to get expensive artificial fertilizers in order to enrich the soil. Also since the dam created year-long irrigation, it led to rise of water table. Due to the rise of water table, salts from depth of earth decreased the fertility of soil. When the dam wasn't built, the salts were flushed out by the floodwaters. Therefore, the farmers have to get expensive field drains in order to get rid of salts that destroys the fertility of soil. Lastly, due to the mosquitos that thrive in the still waters of Lake Nasser and irrigation canals, rates of malaria and other diseases increased. Not only that, due to the fact that Lake Nasser holds the floodwaters, people lose so much amount of fresh water to evaporation. Even though there's several problem, there's also a possible solution to solve this issue. We should build assisting systems, to trap the escaping sediments in the Aswan Dam. Secondly, we can develop our way of irrigation, to help enrich the soil due to amount of salt. By adding nutrients to the soil, it will help the fertility problem right now.
Works Cited
"Aswan Dam." Geography. About.com, n.d. Web. 1 May 2011. <http://geography.about.com/od/specificplacesofinterest/a/nile.htm>.
"Effects of the Aswan High Dam." Department of Oceanography. Texas A&M University, n.d. Web. 1 May 2011. <http://ocean.tamu.edu/Quarterdeck/QD3.1/Elsayed/elsayed.html>.
Egypt, the growth of the population in. "The First Aswan Dam." University of Michigan. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2011. <http://www.umich.edu/~kelseydb/Exhibits/AncientNubia/PhotoIntro.html>.
"Environmental Impact of the Aswan High Dam." MBarron. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2011. <http://www.mbarron.net/Nile/envir_nf.html>.